


rubatosis

by zhulixir



Category: NINE PERCENT (Band), 乐华七子NEXT | NEX7, 偶像练习生 | Idol Producer (TV)
Genre: Angst, Betrayal, Blood and Violence, Explicit Language, Horror, M/M, Murder, yibin is ruibin here okie
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 07:15:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27159898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zhulixir/pseuds/zhulixir
Summary: n. the unsettling awareness of your own heartbeat, where the beating continued on drumming inequivalent to anxiousness however calmingly similar to a metronome; as if a constant reminder of a wanderer muttering its' existence to the world (dictionary of obscure sorrows, 2012).tw// blood, murder, betrayal, explicit language, violenceWhen they arrived at camp as a friendship bonding trip, who would've thought that something sinister awaits for them to discover the unresolved truth of a vengeful spirit that haunts the forest. What underlying secrets were hidden away and are just waiting to be spilt.This is a story about love, friendship, and betrayal; everything leading back to the events of the 'Forest of The Lost Prince'.
Relationships: Bi Wenjun/Zhu Zhengting | Jung Jung, Cai Xukun/Zhu Zhengting | Jung Jung, Wang Ziyi/Zhu Zhengting | Jung Jung, Zheng Ruibin/Zhu Zhengting | Jung Jung
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8
Collections: Cloud 9 Fic Fest





	rubatosis

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: So um, first and foremost, I was listening to Tommee Profit’s dark version of Can’t Help Falling in Love with Brooke DeLeary (god her vocals are so hauntingly beautiful) and EXO-CBX’s Paper Cut. I’d recommend yalls to prompt yourself with these songs prior to reading this. I am certainly NOT an angst writer but I like new challenges ya know, and I happened to love this prompt so much that I’m so excited to write my own creativity based on this. UH, I did kinda deviated from the actual prompts that were suggested, BUT LISTEN, the essence of it is still here because I tried my best to integrate the prompter’s two ideas into one. Please take note of the trigger warnings. Don’t like, don’t read! I will not take account if you find yourself uncomfortable throughout the story as I had warned you beforehand. Thank you! I hope you enjoy reading this as much I enjoyed writing this!

_“Xukun”_

_His breathing came to a stop when a small, almost whispery voice called out to him meekly from behind. The man didn’t even turn to look, knowing well that it’ll only hurt him if he does. The dark-haired male did nothing but stood in place, stabilising his breathing as he kept his eyes shut tight._

_“Xukun...”_

_“Cai Xukun…”_

_“...I’ll never forgive you…”_

_The small voice called out, volume getting softer before a short huff of breath was exhaled. Silence. The tall man clutched onto his blade, drawing out fresh blood from his palms as his tears streamed down his face. He gulped down his saliva, fighting the urge to turn around. He never thought it’d end this way, falling in love was the last on his list._

_“I’m sorry, Zhengting” he whispered before immediately fleeing away from the forest, leaving the bloodied male to lay lifelessly._

↬ ◦ ❦ ◦ ↫

“Legend says that an ethereal being haunts the forest that we’re going to camp at. Many missing cases were reported yet none of the people were found” Justin whispered eerily in the backseat, but making sure everyone could hear him clearly. Although all eyes were looking away from the boy, they couldn’t help but listen.

“The story goes that the prince was hypnotised to go to the forest on the night of his 18th birthday, **_alone_ **. The whole nation searched the whole forest for a week before one by one, the citizens' hope of finding their dear prince began to extinguish. On the eighth day of the search, close to the strike of midnight, there they found the prince sitting by a tall tree branch with his head tilted upwards to the sky, staring at the full moon that illuminated his features. Before the guards could call out to the prince’s siblings, they were startled when the missing prince head was uncomfortably twisted to stare down at them”

“Justin, can you cut it out” Yanchen's voice wavered but he immediately cleared his throat to keep his composure. He hugged his pillow close to his chest as he tried to hide the fact that he was honestly scared shitless. Clearly, he was **_not_ ** a fan of this sleeping-in-the-forest trip, yet the whole gang was so eager he couldn’t just refuse and be a party pooper.

“Just ignore him, Yanchen. You know he gets these stories from Weibo supernatural and conspiracy accounts just to spook himself to sleep” Wenjun made sure his eyes were still focused on the road as Ziyi gave directions every now and then. 

“But I’m telling you! This is legit! Like, everyone in that community shared about how there’s this, this transcendental guardian in the woods that is ready to eat us alive!” Justin exasperated with his eyebrows scrunched and basically almost lurching himself forward when he tried to get his message across to Wenjun and Ziyi, who still seemed unfazed by the whole ‘men-eating-ethereal-forest-guardian’ thing. Justin dramatically plummeted himself back on his seat as he had his arms crossed against his chest. Yanchen sighed as Justin's horror story was over whilst Ruibin continued to stare out the window.

“Weren’t you the one that suggested this place, Justin?” Ziyi arched his eyebrow as he tilted his head back to give the youngest a glance before going back to read the navigation. Justin smiled cheekily almost instantly when he was engaged in the conversation again.

“I know I did but listen; What if we find the lost prince’s body and we would be super famous for that, ya know?” Yanchen looked at Justin as if he grew two heads and instantly choked on air, gasping and coughing out loudly.

“You said this would be a normal campfire singing songs kind?? HELLO?? WHAT DO YOU MEAN DEAD BODY?” 

“Well, not literally a fresh corpse you know, like just the bones”

“No dead bodies slash bones hunting, Justin” Wenjun said simply before making a turn. Justin rolled his eyes and settled himself back into his seat again.

“You guys are boring, should’ve hitched a ride with Zhangjing instead” Justin huffed before snoring away a few minutes after along the journey.

↬ ◦ ❦ ◦ ↫

_Drip, drip, drip_

_“Please, it’s not me! I swear!”_

_Drip, drip, drip_

_“I loved him but he never loved me!”_

_Along with the winds, he sleeps._

↬ ◦ ❦ ◦ ↫

Ruibin was startled awake as soon as they arrived at the location. His dreams had been surreal lately, leading up to this day as he kept seeing visions of a silhouette in white, a smile so beautiful that his heart ached.

“Wakey wakey sleepy head! We’re finally here!” Justin excitedly ran towards the other car that just arrived and immediately ran into a group hug with two other males. Zhangjing sighed but smiled warmly as he got out of the car along with Xingjie and Yanjun.

“Xiao Gui, Chengcheng, Justin! Let’s settle ourselves first before you three suddenly wander off elsewhere” The three of them beamed at the offer before they obediently followed the others and carried their bags along.

It was surprisingly easy for them to pick out a place and set up camp, the place had a wide area for them to pitch up their tents and each of them was assigned different tasks before nightfall. Peals of laughter and chatters livened up the quiet place as normal, the youngsters would tease and scare Yanchen and Zhangjing would tag along just because.

Wenjun’s mind had been a mess ever since he stepped out of the car. His heart felt heavy and his head was dizzy. He could do everything in perfect condition, no problem. But there’s something, something that he couldn’t figure out. As if something somewhere didn’t sit right. Ruibin had been surprisingly more quiet than usual too, staring into the bonfire as if his life was sucked out of him. Of course, this didn’t go unnoticed. Zhangjing gently tapped his finger on Wenjun’s shoulder, snapping him out of his trance before he looked up to him.

“Did you get into a fight with Ruibin?” Zhangjing muttered softly as he used his head as an indicator for Wenjun to look at Ruibin’s direction as well. Wenjun placed the span of his right palm against his forehead, applying pressure with the tip of his thumb and forefinger against his temples.

“No, I didn’t get into a fight with him. It’s just that, I don’t feel too good right now. It’s okay, Zhangijng ge, I’ll be fine.” Wenjun muttered before displaying a small smile at the worried male. Zhangjing had his eyebrows furrowed but he nodded once in acknowledgement. The shorter male turned to Ruibin next and Wenjun watched him walk away. Wenjun had always hated going on outdoor activities like this. He’d prefer to stay cooped up at home and binge-read his stack of translated mangas to pass his time when he’s not studying. Call him a nerd or whatever, he didn’t really care much as long as he could score well for his tests. Of course, he didn’t know how he ended up with a bunch of loud and popular friends in university, but he was glad that they accepted him regardless of his contrasting nature.

Ruibin however, he couldn’t really like, emotionally connect with him. He’s like a whole different energy compared to others. Wenjun supposed that maybe because he’s as awkward as he is, but that’s not really the issue either. Ruibin is like, super popular, like those seme protagonists in BL webtoons that people simp over by just breathing. Yeah, exactly like that. It’s not that Wenjun is jealous of him or anything. Not at all. He just wanted to be comfortable around him. But yeah, there’s just something about Ruibin that he didn’t like, but he still couldn’t put a finger on it.

Wenjun watches as Ruibin only nodded and shrugged his shoulder when Yanjun and Zhangjing were talking to him. Yeah, totally not gonna vibe with him anytime soon.

↬ ◦ ❦ ◦ ↫

_“What would you like for your 18th birthday?”_

_He lets out soft giggles as he tilts his up, staring up at the sky as he plays with the sleeves of his robe. The other male could only smile in adoration, watching the beautiful person beside him had his cheeks flushed red as he tapped the bottom of his chin with his index finger. He scrunched his brows together with his bottom lip jutted out slightly as he pondered. Oh, how he adored the littlest things he did._

_“Do you think that—“_

_Before he could digest the remaining words that escaped the smaller male’s lips, the words that were heard were instantaneously muffled and everything became a blur._

↬ ◦ ❦ ◦ ↫

As the moon lit up the sky and all 10 of them gathered around the campfire, Yanchen knew he would hate this part the most in this get-together camping trip. Justin purposefully took his place beside Yanchen, knowing full well the latter would freak the most at his stories. Justin cleared his throat and the light chatters died down, all of them there had their attention on the youngest.

“This very forest lies the legend of the lost prince where the body just disappeared in thin air. Nobody knew why he went alone here but some theories say that it was suicide because of the heartbreak from his ex that pushed him away because they were a commoner. The prince that night had enough so he ran to the forest before falling to his death, cursing whoever that disrupts him here would experience the same pain he went through before he took his last breath.”

“Justin, that was totally different than what you told us earlier,” Yanchen said meekly as he clutched onto Xingjie’s arm.

“I told you, this is one of the theories that they shared in the group. Most of them agree that this might be the closest one yet”

“Has anyone seen this so-called ‘lost prince’ before? How did this mythology even start?” Chengcheng leaned forward in interest.

“Oh! Actually, someone had caught a picture of a white robe in this forest before. But…”

Justin stopped his sentence mid-way and gulped loudly. The tension in the atmosphere was high. Although it seemed like the others initially weren’t interested, they were now intrigued to know what Justin’s continuation would be.

“But what, Justin?” Xiao Gui voiced out impatiently as he snacked on the remaining meal they cooked up earlier.

“But— but every time someone uploads some kind of evidence of the prince’s existence, the accounts would suddenly vanish exactly 24 hours after, even with all the screenshots or pictures saved, it’ll either be corrupted or magically erased on its own”

“That sounds like bullshit, you know that, right? No ghost or magical fairy, especially if they’re like what, _a century old_ , could possibly be able to hack into the digital world just to creep people out. Like, why even 24 hours when the ghost doesn't want their existence to be known? Grow up, Justin. You know fully well that these things are there just to trick the human mind,” Yanchen elaborated with his voice raised slightly. He stared at Justin and the younger would stare at him back. His gaze faltered when he saw how younger’s expression fell; as if he spoiled a child with there’s no such thing as Santa on Christmas.

“Justin, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sound so harsh—“

“You know what? I’ll prove it to you!” Justin immediately stood up with his whole face coloured red in fury before stomping away. This was a normal sight to others, so they couldn’t really interfere since the youngest would always execute things when he puts his mind into it. The only way to satisfy him is to actually go his way until he realises himself that he had been a little immature in making decisions. Yanchen had his shoulders slumped in guilt, feeling the silence in the air eating him up. Wenjun cleared his throat and got up from his position before plastering a reassuring smile to Yanchen.

“I’ll go talk to him,”

“Thank you so much, Wenjun,”

“Don’t thank me, his temperaments are predictable. But he’ll come around,”

Yanchen couldn’t do anything but stare at Wenjun’s back when he left to go to Justin’s tent. Yanjun went to Yanchen’s side and patted her shoulder once before smiling lightly.

“It’s fine, we know you meant well. I’m sure Justin knew that too,”

Yanchen gave him a nod, knowing that Wenjun was the only one that could calm Justin down.

↬ ◦ ❦ ◦ ↫

With everyone already in their designated shared tents and dozing away, Justin had a different agenda in his head. Wenjun had talked to Justin and the younger hated to admit it but, he was fully aware that he had acted immaturely too. Justin, he has his ego you know. Being the youngest but having to be able to skip years and enter the university early, he hated being wrong. He just knows that somehow this time, he knows for sure that there is something out here with them. He can’t shake the lingering feeling that connected him here. Answers that were waiting to unravel themselves, answers waiting to be discovered. The way he stumbled upon the mysterious story of the lost prince was not pure coincidence. Justin is a firm believer that things happen for a reason. That’s why he did so much extra research about it, from the historical perspective of it to the events that occurred in this very forest up until today. Justin is like, 99.9999% sure of it.

Justin waited and made sure both Wenjun and Chengcheng were fast asleep before he took his phone and flashlight with him, quietly exiting the tent. As soon as Justin stepped out of his tent, he felt chill run down his spine when he saw a person in white with their back turned in Justin’s line of sight, just standing idly in front of supposedly Ziyi, Yanchen, and Ruibin’s tent. Justin froze in place. He was terrified but he couldn’t scream. Justin’s fight-or-flight instincts were telling him to get the fuck out of there but he didn’t do anything. Justin just continued staring at the ‘thing’ for a solid minute.

“Minghao”

A whisper from the back of his neck snapped him back to reality. Justin turned himself out of reflex and was close to punching Yanchen square in the face for startling him like that.

“What the fuck, Yanchen ge” Justin whispered out loudly, eyes widened with his heart almost jumping out of his throat. Justin instantly snapped his head back to see that the person in white had vanished in thin air. Justin looked around right and left before turning his head back to Yanchen.

“D-did you see?”

“See what?”

Justin could sense the panic in Yanchen’s eyes as he had his head turned to the direction Justin was looking at. Everything looked normal to him, well, as normal as it could be. There was no sight of anything out of the ordinary aside from the fact that Justin and Yanchen being out of their respective tents.

Justin was out of breath as he kept looking around in fear as all his senses were alerted. Yanchen couldn’t help but watch the younger as if he was out of his mind. Before Yanchen could say anything, a whisper that was so faint yet so loud interrupted Justin’s heavy breathing.

_“Minghao”_

As if on instinct, Justin and Yanchen immediately shot their heads up and saw it. An ethereal being standing on top of a tree branch that was nearest to them. The supernatural being had their head tilted upwards as they stared at the moon. Both males couldn’t move a muscle even if they wanted to. It was as if they were frozen in place with their gaze fixed on the figure on top of the tree. Soft weepings were heard soon after and as soon as the being in white turned their head slowly towards them, Justin and Yanchen’s vision blurred before turning black.

And Yanchen was certain that the last thing he saw was red tears.

**Author's Note:**

> [cardi b's voice] ladies and gentlemen, it was lovely to have you this year. see you next year, or not [inserts cackles but in stressed uni student version]


End file.
